The next morning Sam woke when Jo brought him and Dean breakfast. Sam's plate had orange juice, pancakes and a bowl of fruit, while Deans had a bowl of chicken broth and some saltine crackers. Dean was still sleeping while Sam ate his out in the main room of the Roadhouse with Jo and Ellen. When he went back into their room about an hour later he was starting to stir.
"Hey, how you feeling today?" Sam said, taking his regular seat by Dean's bedside.
"Fine" Dean said, stretching in bed and moving to get up. He was uneasy on his wobbly feet at first and Sam immediately went to his side to support him.
"Slow down, you've been in bed for the last few days." Sam chided, trying to get Dean to go back to bed.
"Sam, I gotta pee." Dean whined.
"Ok, well then I'll help you. You're still too weak to be up on your own."
"Fine, but you're not coming in with me, that's just creepy dude." Dean conceded to his brother and let him help him down the hall to the bathroom. As he stood outside the door, waiting to help Dean back to bed, Jo walked by.
"He up?" She asked, trying to mask the concern and relief in her voice with indifference, just in case Dean could hear.
"Yeah, made me take him to the bathroom. He's bossy when he's sick." Sam replied, saying the last part a little louder than he had to. This made her smile.
"Only when he's sick?" She laughed. Just then the door to the bathroom opened and Dean came out leaning on the doorframe at first then his brother.
"Making fun of the sick guy, are we? Now that's just cruel." He scoffed.
"C'mon, you shouldn't be up…"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm still sick. Blah blah blah." Dean griped as Sam helped him back to bed. Dean sank back into the bed looking rather comfortable, like he was going to fall asleep again. That was until his stomach grumbled. He groaned and sat up.
"I'm hungry." He stated.
"Yeah, I think we can all tell that." Sam said, grabbing the tray of the table, placing it on Dean's lap. Dean just stared at it and then looked back up at Sam.
"This isn't food." He said. "This is what pregnant women eat when they can't control their morning sickness."
"No, this is what sick people eat. And you are sick; therefore you will eat this until you get better." Sam ordered, picking up the spoon and handed it to Dean. Dean grumbled something incoherent in response and started eating his bowl of soup. After about half the bowl and a few crackers, Dean's eyes started drooping and his head dipped forward a little every once in a while.
"That's it, your done eating, your gonna fall asleep and drown in your soup." Sam said, laughing a little as he took the tray from Dean.
"Ok." Dean conceded, leaning back in bed and closing his eyes. He was asleep within minutes. Sam sighed as he sat there by his sleeping brother's side; the last few days had been tough on him too. He'd watched as Dean went from having a cold and ignoring it, to having what seemed to be the flu and still ignoring it to being delirious with fever and struggling to breathe. Somewhere between the flu and the intense fever, Sam had managed to convince Dean to take the antibiotics they had, but those had done nothing to slow the progress. He was jolted out of his thoughts when there was a knock on the door.
"Come in" He said, wearily.
"Hey" Jo said, walking into the room, she looked at Dean who was asleep and softly snoring on the bed. "I thought he was up."
"He was, he had a little soup before he started falling asleep again." Sam said. Jo picked up the tray and was about to leave the room again when Sam spoke up.
"Thanks again for helping us. I don't know why, but the meds you gave us seemed to help a whole hell of a lot more than the stuff we had."
"What he had probably wasn't sensitive to the antibiotics you had, but was to the once we had." She stated. "Nursing school, remember?" She said off Sam's confused look.
"Oh, yeah, I forgot." Sam said, running a hand through his hair.
"Get some rest Sam. And here, take this" She said holding out a small pill to Sam.
"What is it?" He asked as he took the pill.
"Vitamin C, it'll help your immune system stay strong so you won't get what he had."
"Nursing school, right?" Sam smiled and took the pill. Jo simply nodded and told him to get her when he woke up next, so she could check him. When Dean awoke a few hours later, she came in to listen to his lungs.
"I need to get to your back." She told him in matter-of-factly, trying as hard as she could to contain her relief at the fact that Dean's temperature was down to 99.5 already. Dean sighed as he leaned forward, with Sam supporting him. He took a couple deep breaths when Jo told him to and then was allowed to lean back on the comfortable pillows.
"Well, your lungs sound pretty good." She said, but Dean saw a glint of something in her eyes.
"Hey Sam, can you go get me a glass of water." Dean said, maintaining eye contact with Jo.
"I can do that" She said, moving to exit the room.
"No, let Sam." Dean said, never taking his eyes off her still. Sam looked between the two of them, feeling suddenly uncomfortable in the room. He muttered something about water and that he'd be right back as he stood and left the room. When Sam was gone Dean spoke.
"You care don't you?" Was all he said, but he watched her reaction and saw the quick change from the cold person caring for him to the Jo he had first met at the road house months ago.
"I don't know what you're talking about." She said.
"Bull. I knew somewhere under that tough girl, I-don't-let-anyone-near-me attitude there was someone who cared. I saw it in your eyes; I heard it when you sighed in relief when you listened to my lungs."
"Yeah, I was relieved that your doing better. I might be pissed off at your family, but I don't want you to die." She yelled in response, stepping a little closer to the bed from her spot near the door. Dean attempted to get out of bed to stand, but as he did so his weakened legs gave way under him and he thought for sure she was just going to let him fall to the floor. Instead she ran to his side to grab him and help him back into bed. That's when he wrapped one hand around the back of her head and pulled her into a kiss. She froze at first but after a second she responded to the kiss, following his lips as he leant back in the bed. The sudden realization of the fact that she was kissing Dean brought her back to reality and she pushed herself away from him and ran out the door, almost knocking Sam over in the process.
Sam had been standing outside the door and had heard most of the conversation. He walked into the room to see Dean sitting on the edge of the bed, smirking.
"She so wants me." Was all he said. Sam rolled his eyes and handed Dean the glass of water. Jo made a point of avoiding the brothers for the rest of the day. Dean slept most of the day like he had the day before, while Sam read or did research on his computer. He was amazed at how well both he and Dean slept through the noise of the bar down the hall, since Ellen had opened the Roadhouse that afternoon.
Yes, i know, someone has brought it up already, there's no Ash. I really have no clue how to add him into the story, and i completely forgot about him. I may add him in near the end or something, but i still dont know. Hope you liked the chapter, the next one will take a while to be posted and thanks to everyone for their support.